by Juniper Hart
“Nothing.” The answer came quickly and without thought, but the expression on Ty’s face said he did not believe what she said.
“He told you something,” he replied. “I was there this morning when you were talking.”
“Then why are you asking me if you already know the answer?” she spat. “What does that have to do with what we’re doing here?”
Ty seemed shocked by her outburst, and his eyebrow rose in appreciation. “Well, well, well,” he purred, sitting back to admire her. “I didn’t think you had any fire in you. I stand corrected.”
Summer’s heart raced, but she did not allow Ty to read her anxiety.
Where is my cell? I can send Lara a text, warning her not to come home.
She eyed her bag and then glanced at Ty, who sat directly beside her purse. It would be impossible to retrieve her phone with him in the room.
He was still evaluating her with begrudging respect.
“Your lover has commissioned us with the task of finding the drug runners from Canada to North Dakota. It has not been an easy time, I tell you. In fact, we all think Damon is a big pain in the ass for making us do that, but how can we argue? He’s our leader, after all.”
Summer felt her jaw tighten at the sarcasm in his voice.
“It’s been years, Summer—years, and we’ve gotten nowhere with this guy. Until suddenly, we get a lead. Your buddy Rich, in fact, led us to your doorstep.”
Summer didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.
“My doorstep?” she echoed. “Does this look like the house of a drug kingpin, you dumb ass?”
Somewhere on Interstate 94, the meek, peacekeeping Summer had been left in the dust, and a new, harder woman had emerged.
To her surprise, Ty whooped.
“You just called me a dumb ass!” he chortled, wiping a tear from his eye, but he nodded agreeably. “But you’re right, and we were skeptical when we came nosing around here. That’s when we learned about you and your roommate. Lara, right?”
Summer clenched her fists, loathing that he spoke her name.
“We have nothing to do with any drugs, Ty. Damon is going to kill you when he finds out what you’re doing.”
Ty rolled his eyes and pointed at the percolator.
“Coffee’s ready.”
Glowering, she stormed off the make a cup for him.
“We found drugs stashed in every nook and cranny of this place,” Ty continued.
Summer turned into a statue. “What?” she choked. “That’s impossible! There’s no way!”
“Stuffed in baseboards, in false bottoms in drawers, in the crawlspace...”
“You’re lying,” she hissed.
Ty shook his head and sighed heavily. “You’re cute, Summer, but you’re not very good at putting things together.”
She stared at him uncomprehendingly. “What are you saying?” she finally choked. “That Lara and I are drug dealers? That we’ve been running narcs through Canada? Are you insane?”
Ty chortled and gestured for her to hand over the coffee. For a moment, Summer considered hurling it in his face and running for the door, but she realized she didn’t feel threatened by Ty.
He’s trying to tell you something if you just listen, a strange voice in her head quipped.
She slid the cup toward him and watched as he took a sip before continuing.
“Lara seems like a nice girl,” he said quite unexpectedly.
Summer blinked at the change of subject.
“She’s a great girl!” she cried. “She doesn’t deserve to be ambushed the minute she walks in the door, Ty. Let me warn her that you’re here. She’ll come, I swear, but…”
Ty rolled his eyes again. “Just stop talking,” he sighed. “Sit down and drink your coffee. We have a couple hours still.”
A little more conversation took place as they sat waiting in the kitchen. Summer began to pace, afraid she was about to pass out with anticipation. She willed him to go to the bathroom, to go outside for a smoke, to do anything so she could grab her phone and call for help.
Why doesn’t he just kill me? He doesn’t need me to see this, does he? I knew he was a sadist. He wants me to suffer before I die.
Each minute that passed was more excruciating than the last as it brought Lara’s arrival closer.
At two-thirteen, a car pulled up outside.
“Oh! Guess who’s home from church!” Ty gloated gleefully, rising from the table to peer outside. A cold smile lit his lips as he nodded. “Perfect,” he said happily.
As the door opened, Summer screamed out.
“Lara, run!”
Ty gave Summer a scathing look, stepping into the hallway.
“If you move, I will kill Summer,” he said pleasantly, and while Summer could not see her roommate’s expression from where she sat, she could feel the distress permeating through the corridor.
“Get inside and sit down,” Ty ordered.
Slowly, Lara’s dark head appeared, her face gaunt as she caught sight of Summer. The women embraced one another.
“Are you okay? What is this?” Lara whispered urgently, but Summer watched as Alex entered the kitchen. In a strange way, she felt a certain smugness knowing that Alex was present.
He’s going to get what’s coming to him, too.
“Take whatever you want,” Lara told Ty. “No one needs to get hurt.”
Ty gave Summer a look she couldn’t decipher.
“The only thing I want,” Ty laughed, “is right here in this room. Sit down.”
Lara hurried to obey, but Alex lingered in the doorway.
“I don’t see a weapon,” Lara’s boyfriend commented, and Summer’s eyes widened with terror.
This idiot doesn’t recognize that he’s about to die.
“Alex, sit down!” Summer snapped. “Sit down and shut up!”
To her dismay, Alex folded his arms over his lean chest.
“No,” he replied, smirking. “If he wants to make me—”
Alex landed squarely upon the stove, a sickening crunch ensuing. He screamed in pain, tears falling from his eyes as Ty shook his head, his arms still extended from the throw.
“Why do they always make me do that?” Ty asked, sighing.
Lara began to wail. “Oh, my God—”
“Oh, what?” Ty snarled. “How many times has he made your bones sound like that? He can walk it off, right, Al? Isn’t that what you say to Lara? Walk it off?”
Alex blubbered, gasping as he rolled off the stove and onto the floor. Lara buried her face in her hands, and Summer stared at him, dumbfounded.
“Anyway, as I was saying earlier, Summer, Jake and I found enough drugs in here to load a cargo hold of a small plane.”
Lara stopped crying and looked up sharply at him as his words sunk in.
“What are you talking about?” she whispered. “What drugs?”
“You see? She doesn’t know anything, either!” Summer yelled. “You’re wrong.”
“Hmm,” Ty drawled. “If you don’t know and she doesn’t know, I wonder who might know something about this.” His steely eyes peered at Alex. “Alex? Do you know anything about drugs inside this house? Lots of drugs? Enough drugs to supply a small town like Bismarck?”
Alex moaned softly, his face ashen as he shook his head in denial.
“No…” he gasped. “Nothing.”
Summer knew what was coming, and she turned her head away.
“Don’t look,” she urged Lara. “Lara, don’t look at them!”
But it was too late.
Ty was on Alex in a second, and the sound of terrified screams and ripping flesh filled the room. Lara could only watch in shock as Ty tore her boyfriend into shreds before her eyes.
As the bloodcurdling effects diminished, Summer raised her eyes and watched as Ty licked the last of Alex from his paws, his human face slowly taking form again.
“What are you?” Lara whispered, but Summer realized that there was no fear in her fa
ce. There was an unreadable expression that she didn’t understand.
“I am Ty,” he replied cordially. “I am your protector.”
***
“Why didn’t you just tell me what was going on?” she asked as they drove back toward the tavern.
Summer had taken Lara to The Cherry House for a drink while Ty had cleaned up the mess that had once been Alex Saunders. It had taken over two hours, but when they had returned, there was no sign that anything untoward had occurred inside the kitchen or anywhere else on the property.
Ty laughed jovially at the question, and Summer was sure it was the first time she had ever heard him genuinely chuckle with emotion.
“Are you kidding? Half the fun in being Lycan is instilling terror. Anyway, I had to be sure before you warned anyone and ruined everything.”
“Were you really watching us for months?”
Ty nodded. “I am surprised you never noticed us until recently.”
Summer narrowed her blue eyes skeptically.
“Is that why you were always so obnoxious? You wanted the attention?”
Ty grinned and shrugged.
“Maybe.”
“Do you really hate Damon so much?”
Ty shook his head, arching an eyebrow in surprise at the abrupt shift in conversation. “I don’t hate Damon at all. He’s our leader. I have nothing but respect for him, but sometimes…”
She watched him expectantly. “Sometimes?”
“Sometimes, he needs to be taken down a notch. I am the one to do that. Although, I suspect going forward that will be your job.”
They shared a smile, and Summer lowered her eyes bashfully.
“Do you have any interest in being leader of the pack?”
He scoffed loudly. “Good God, no,” he proclaimed. “He has the worst job, carrying the weight of everyone else’s problems on his shoulders. But, if he thinks I want the job, it keeps him strong and fair.”
“So, why did you make it seem like you were going to kill me?”
“You’re an innocent human. I knew that Damon wasn’t going to let us kill you. Someone in the pack is out to get Damon and I’m not sure who it is. I need that person to trust me, so I figured if I keep defying him, that traitor will eventually confide in me.”
“Why are you telling me this?” asked Summer, not quite believing what Ty said.
“I think it’s quite obvious… We could all see the way he reacted to you. You’re his mate, so I think it’s best that you understand what’s happening right now.”
Summer studied him, looking for signs of deceit in him, but she saw nothing but mild amusement in his face.
No guile, she thought. But maybe a sense of wistfulness? Maybe all the members of the pack dream of being leader.
She had much to learn about their ways, and she was excited to learn them.
“Don’t you think that maybe you should tell him that you’re not his enemy before he genuinely sees you as a threat?”
“He can’t see me as a threat. It’s against our code to kill one another. I am just a thorn in his side.”
Summer did not claim to understand his mentality, but she was grateful to be alive and no longer in fear for her life.
We’ll go back to the tavern and tell Damon that everything is done. We’re safe, Ty is on our side and we have nothing to fear any longer.
She exhaled in relief.
It was all over.
Chapter Ten
There was no time for thought, only reaction, and Damon leapt into the line of fire, taking the bullet destined for Summer. He landed against the far wall, groaning as the ammunition pierced his neck.
“I had a feeling he would do that,” Jake sighed in annoyance, cocking the gun again.
This time, the weapon was knocked from his hand as Ty flew atop him, the two entangled in a wrestle as Damon struggled to get to his feet. Summer ran for the gun, a few feet from where Ty and Jake were wrapped in a dangerous tussle.
Damon lumbered toward them, staggering slightly as he moved, his face disoriented. He jumped into the pile of fur and fangs, still in his human form, and Summer stood holding the gun uncertainly. She had never fired a weapon in her life, and she did not know what to do.
She had seen enough movies to get the gist of what was expected, but she dared not fire, not knowing which beast she might hit during the struggle.
“Shift, Damon, shift!” Ty screamed, weakened by the fight he’d had with the leader minutes earlier, but Damon seemed far away, his jade eyes unfocused.
“He can’t!” Jake snarled. “The bullet is silver.”
Time seemed to slow suddenly as Damon fell backward, life seeping out of him as Summer watched in horror.
“What is happening?” she screamed. “Ty, do something!”
Ty jumped off Jake, whirling back into his human form and snatching the gun from Summer’s quaking hands. He fired three shots, one after the other, into Jake’s heart and chest.
Jake sneered at him from the floor, his yellow eyes shining with loathing.
“Pathetic,” he wheezed, bleeding upon the dirty floor of the tavern. “Neither one of you can lead. You are worse than Nash.”
Ty spat at him as Summer ran to Damon, tears streaming down her face.
“Ty, what do I do?” she bawled, but Ty could not pull his eyes away from Jake. She buried her head in Damon’s chest, listening to his labored breathing with terror in her veins.
But Damon, too, was drawn to the sound of Jake’s voice.
“What did you say about Nash?” Damon rasped.
Summer watched as a cold, cruel smile lit Jake’s almost translucent lips. “You heard me,” he whispered, his words almost inaudible as life seeped from his body. “He was no more fit to be a leader than you.”
Nothing could explain where Damon took his strength from, pushing Summer away from his body as he jumped on his once loyal pack member.
“What did you do?” Damon hissed, his head lolling about as consciousness inevitably set in.
“You know what I did,” Jake smiled.
Ty pulled the leader back and seized Jake by the throat, yanking him into the air, his fingers squeezing into his windpipe.
“Say it,” he growled. “Say it aloud.”
“I—tried to k-k-kill…” His breaths stopped abruptly, and simultaneously, Jake went silent and Damon collapsed onto the ground.
“Do something!” Summer shrieked, looking panicked at Ty. He rushed to her side and peered down at Damon.
“I can’t do anything,” he told her helplessly. “If I try to take the bullet from his chest, the silver will weaken me. You have to do it.”
Summer stared at him, her eyes like saucers.
“Tell me what to do,” she whispered. “Quickly. He’s dying!”
“Dig your fingers inside the hole and pull the bullet out. If he’s not too wounded, he will heal himself, but if he is, we will need to take him to a hospital before he bleeds out.”
Summer wasted no time and reached her hand into bullet hole, her long, slim fingers gently prodding the ammunition from Damon’s chest. His face had gone ashen, and fear brought bile to her throat, but she could not stop, working between her tears to scoop out the bullet.
Her hands were slippery with blood and she lost hold of the bullet several times, but she didn’t give up, feeling Damon slipping away with each second.
“Call an ambulance,” she begged Ty. “We won’t have time to save him!”
Ty shook his head miserably.
“We can’t, Summer,” he said gravely, pointing at the nearly dead werewolf sprawled on the floor. “If you don’t get it soon, we’ll load him in my pickup and go. The hospital is seven minutes from here.”
“We don’t have seven minutes!”
The shell popped into her hand and she stared at it for a long minute, her heart beating like a jack rabbit.
“You got it,” Ty exhaled.
“Come on, Damon, come back to us,” Summ
er whispered, pressing on his chest and beginning to perform CPR on him.
“Summer, that won’t do anything,” Ty told her gently. “There is not much we can do from here.”
She ignored him, pressing her mouth against Damon’s bluish lips, the salt of her tears infused with the blood from her hands.
“Come on, damn you! Come on!” She pressed against his chest again, pounding on him to return. “I just found you,” she bawled. “You can’t leave me now!”
“Summer…”
She ignored Ty, but the hysteria was beginning to overtake her as she continued to perform the exercises on Damon.
But there was no point.
He was gone.
Epilogue
One Year Later
They stared into each other’s eyes, losing themselves deeply in the middle of their passion.
Summer felt his hand encircle her throat gently, massaging her as he mounted her from behind and she shuddered ecstatically, his face pressed to her shoulder as they rocked in unison. She arched back, relishing in his soft grunts as he plunged into her with slightly more gusto, knowing she wanted more and gladly giving it to her hard and fast.
Summer yelped out, her hands curling into the pillows as he finished inside her, thrusting deeply with one final throw before collapsing atop her, pinning her contentedly into the mattress.
“Is it me or does this keep getting better?” Damon asked, and she laughed, squeezing out from under his wide shoulders.
“I think you might be experiencing everything for the first time,” she told him, placing a lazy kiss on his lips.
“Like a virgin?” he teased, and Summer laughed.
“Exactly like a virgin,” she replied, smiling.
Her cell was chiming on the night stand.
“Leave it!” he groaned. “There’s never any peace.”
A soft grin played on Summer’s lips and she strongly objected to the complaint. There had been nothing but peace for one full year.
She had returned to her small house on East Boulevard with Lara, and the two never discussed what happened the day that Alex had disappeared. It was as if he had never existed, and soon, the terror that he had inflicted upon their lives was forgotten as if it had only been a nightmare. Still, Summer knew that, even with Alex gone, it was only a matter of time before someone else stepped in.